True story - I learned how to roll from Frank Zappa's naked one armed roadie in a seedy Hollywood hotel room in the 70's. Well, he wasn't completely naked, he was wearing an American flag.I realize not everyone may have grown up with my advantages.

Don't you guys realize that two weeks ago they took down a grandma who was taking care of herself.

It's motivated the legalization effort in Florida, there's local speculation that we'll be the next to legalize because thecops took down a granny with ALS.

This is them turning up their side of the war, happened in every state that's legalized.. The cops raise the bar rightbefore the votes go through in the hopes of making a political statement, they don't want to be unemployed by nothaving enough harmless people to arrest and harass.

way south:I know that an increase in cops, education, or other services will create a known benefit. I am not so sure that a buy back does anything good.Why pay for an unknown activity when a known activity gives me more of what I want?

Buybacks do have a known benefit - they take guns off the street that are defective, and very often in the hands of the unfit. They also cost little, and violate no ones rights.But I have to be honest at this point - I cannot engage in an intelligent dialogue with every single person who is in this debate. I can't dialogue with extremists.By contrasting example, the other day I attempted to engage my elected representative Diane Feinstein in a discussion about her support of the ridiculous "assault weapons" ban. Whoever responded to me during the exchange never responded to any actual thing I said - the law was anti-gun, that made it good, and if I didn't like it I was naive and foolish. It was like talking to a wall. A wall that looks remarkably similar to the wall you throw up when anyone suggests ANY form of gun control or amelioration.The time I spent talking to her was wasted time. How much time should I waste talking to you?

Pollexter:LowbrowDeluxe: Also, I'd like to note that I'm amused that the GUN PAUL! crowd has actually become so shrill and intrusive as to surpass the Legalize Weed, Man! group and in fact, hijack weed threads even.

Quick, someone mention breastfeeding or circumcision, just to see if it can all be done in one thread!

One thread? One sentence: "These gun-grabbing liberals who suckle the taxpayer's teat are high as hippies if they think circumcision ought to be federally funded."

LowbrowDeluxe:Also, I'd like to note that I'm amused that the GUN PAUL! crowd has actually become so shrill and intrusive as to surpass the Legalize Weed, Man! group and in fact, hijack weed threads even.

Quick, someone mention breastfeeding or circumcision, just to see if it can all be done in one thread!

jso2897:way south: Bullshiat guns that don't fire make a good threat to shoo the burglars away but have no teeth.Why would anyone want to remove those? ...at our own expense, even?

I hope you are joking. An inherently defective firearm is dangerous in a myriad of different ways, and people shouldn't have them around. What if this putative "burglar" prefers to avoid violence, but comes strapped just in case, and you pull a gun that won't shoot on him? What if, instead of failing to fire, it blows up in your face?I really, really hope you are being facetious.I really hate both the extremes in this debate. The gun hater who thinks guns are tools of the devil, and the gun lover who thinks they are the heart and soul of American freedom are equally insane. They are tools, for f**ks sake - like a goddamn shovel - and if you love or hate a tool, and invest moral value in it, you are a lunatic.

Or, to quote Mark Twain:

Don't meddle with old unloaded firearms. They are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You don't have to take any pains at all with them; you don't have to have a rest, you don't have to have any sights on the gun, you don't have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away, and you are sure to get him. A youth who can't hit a cathedral at thirty yards with a Gatling gun in three-quarters of an hour, can take up an old empty musket and bag his mother every time at a hundred. Think what Waterloo would have been if one of the armies had been boys armed with old rusty muskets supposed not to be loaded, and the other army had been composed of their female relations. The very thought of it makes me shudder.- Advice to Youth speech, 4/15/1882